Rural lifestyle vlogger and influencer turned entrepreneur Li Ziqi has announced a collaboration between her eponymous brand and the Chinese National Geography and Chinese Heritage magazines. The result is a co-branded instant luosifen noodle soup. The announcement was made on 14 December and the collab has been available since.
Li Ziqi used to be one of the most popular vloggers in the Chinese-speaking world, if not the most popular as she broke the Guinness World Record for having the most subscribed Chinese language YouTube channel. She also founded her brand focusing on packaged instant versions of local dishes from all over China such as luosifen from Liuzhou, Guangxi. She paused her videos in 2021 due to a legal dispute with Weinian, the MCN company running her accounts. After resolving the dispute, she made a brief online appearance last year announcing her return as the official ambassador for the Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival.
The luosifen (螺蛳粉, lit. river snail noodle) is a noodle soup made with rice noodles, river snail soup and toppings which typically include fermented bamboo shoots and other local delicacies. It is a Liuzhou local staple and gained nationwide popularity after featuring in the viral TV documentary series A Bite of China in 2012. Packaged instant luosifen was invented in 2014 and the noodle soup quickly swept China. During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, luosifen, among other instant foods, became even more loved across the country. The collaboration with Chinese Heritage came to fruition partly because luosifen was selected as China’s intangible cultural heritage in 2021.
The topic “Li Ziqi collaborates with Chinese Heritage” (#李子柒品牌联名中华遗产上新#) gained 260 million views on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent. A promotional video was released on Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app, and the video also links luosifen with another intangible cultural heritage from Guangxi, the Zhuang brocade woven textile of the ethnic Zhuang people. By bringing two traditional crafts together with the blessing of both magazines, Li’s collaboration further establishes the authenticity of the packaged noodles and her own credentials as an ambassador for promoting rural areas and traditional heritage.
